Madison Mayor Reflects on 2013 and Looks Ahead to 2014

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MADISON, Ala. (WHNT) - Madison mayor Troy Trulock is wrapping up his first full calendar year in office. WHNT News 19 sat down with him to look back on the year that was and look ahead to what’s down the road.

When we first caught up with the mayor this time last year, he'd only been in office for four months. He was just getting his feet wet. So how are things going after his first full year? “It’s fantastic,” he says. “We have a beautiful city and a fantastic community so I couldn't be happier. We've made a ton of progress in the first year, not just in the city of Madison but also in our Tennessee Valley so I'm proud to be part of the team and proud to be the mayor.”

He says his administrations biggest accomplishment so far can be summed up in one word. “Roads, the biggest accomplishments have been roads,” Trulock said. “I think we spoke last year when I came into office, talking and listening to the citizens, I found out that roads were the number one priority.”

Madison’s two biggest road projects underway right now are the interchange at County Line Road and I-565 and the Indian Creek Bridge on Old Madison Pike. The mayor says, “Those two projects have been on the books, in the works for 12 years or 15 years and they're under construction now.”

Mayor Trulock says the partnership with next door neighbor Huntsville couldn’t be better. “Fantastic,” he said when asked how it was going. “We have a great partnership not just with the city of Huntsville but also with Madison County, with our state legislators and our federal legislators.” He says it’s all about teamwork.

When we talked with him a year ago, we asked him to finish the statement, I resolve to. And in brief he responded by saying, “In 2013, I resolve to improve the quality of life for our city and for our citizens in Madison.” Was he able to keep that goal? “Well, I'll tell you, for the first year with the help of our department heads in the city and our city council, we are absolutely knocking it out of the park at this point,” he said.

And Trulock adds it’s not just Madison roads that will see changes. He says, “We're going to improve our library, our parks and recreation, our roads so we are very blessed, great teamwork with city council, department heads and me and so are moving forward on improving our quality of life.”

Asked what’s down the road and what he’s looking forward to in 2014, he said, “There’s a 54 million dollar capital improvement plan. You can't get it done overnight so we're going to continue to work that off and it may take us, it's actually a seven year plan.” He continued, “So we're going to continue to chip away but the first chunk of that 54 million, the most expensive part is roads. So in 2013, we focused on roads. But we'll be able to focus a little less on roads in 2014 and more on parks in recreation and our library and our historic downtown.”

He’s working with a seven year plan and still has more than two and a half years left on his first term so we asked him if he plans to run again? “Well, we'll have to see. I believe that if you do a good job for the citizens and the citizens are happy with you, I think we would probably stay around.” But he also believes in term limits. He concluded by saying, “I may not be real fond of the long term career in politics but if I can support the community, support the citizens and help our Tennessee Valley and the city of Madison grow, I'm more than happy to do that.”